


Old Forest Grave

by MaggyFinallyWrites



Category: Etrian Odyssey Series, 世界樹の迷宮X | Etrian Odyssey Nexus
Genre: Angst, Bad Times in the Waterfall Woods, Gen, Mentions of Death, hints of PTSD, hints of suicidal thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:01:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27611768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaggyFinallyWrites/pseuds/MaggyFinallyWrites
Summary: Adventurers from Armoroad are hired to explore the Waterfall Woods found in Lemuria, there's just one problem with their party's Shogun in particular when it comes to those woods.
Kudos: 6





	Old Forest Grave

_ Green trees, pink flowers, yellow mushrooms, and blue water. That was the simplest way an adventurer could describe the Waterfall Woods. It was such an eerily beautiful place, truly, bird song greeting the adventurers as they entered the woods. The gentle trickle of the waterfall calming their greenhorn nerves as they walked past it. _

_ 'How could such a beautiful place be the cemetery of so many adventures?' The then young Shogun had pondered, staring at the bright blue water flowing down into the Labyrinth's depths. _

"Ryuji?"

_ “Ryuji come on, we need to finish the map!" His teammates were calling him. _

"Ryuji!"

_ "If we finish this today we can be on the second floor by tomorrow, let's go Ryuji!" _

"Hey!" A gauntleted hand waved in front of the not old man, "Ryuji, are you ok?"

"I-" The old man stared, his gaze shifting from the waterfall to his new teammates, right. He was no longer that young greenhorn adventurer, he was an old man, and his guild… "Just lost in an old memory Princess Starla, my apologies. It won't happen again."

"..." Her blue eyes looked him over, those white pupils boring into him as her expression went from one of annoyance to one of concern. "If this is too much we can go back for now."

"We were ordered to explore this labyrinth at the request of Princess Persephone herself," Ryuji said, trying to steady himself.

"I know but who do you serve, old man?"

"I serve Armoroad’s royalty."

"Mhm, so if you need to go back we ca-"

"I do not need to go back," Ryuji snapped, the other 3 party members now looking over at the pair. "Let us continue forward…" Ryuji said as he turned, not wanting to see their innocent stares. It reminded him too much of that time…

"If you're sure," Starla said with a sigh. "Clark, Zera, Kotaro, get into position, we begin our exploration!”

Ryuji took Starla’s front guard and Kotaro her back, Clark nervously stood himself in front of Zera as she floated behind him, map in hand as they began their trek.

"Gosh, this place really is similar to the labyrinth back home," Clark commented, being a farmer of course he could note just how much the flora and fauna were almost exactly like the ones back in Armoroad. Though he'd need to do a thorough investigation later just to be sure.

"It looks the same, but the structure is different," Zera said calmly, using her Zodiac powers to float to the front line to show the 3 her maps. "See? Armoroads Waterfall Woods and this one are completely different in that regard," her purple eyes then found themselves staring at Ryuji. "This place is not the labyrinth we know."

"... why does that matter?"

"I'd hoped maybe it would help if you kept that in mind."

"I do not need your help girl, now get back into position, there are monsters afoot."

The Zodiac sighed as she floated back to her place, Clark offering her a small smile.

"It's kind of you wanting to help him out," he said, giving the small woman a thumbs up.

"Stubborn old man…" was all Zera muttered in turn.

"Company!" Kotaro said sharply, the five preparing their weapons as they were attacked by a pair of Fanged Fish jumping out of the water. 

"Let's go!" Starla commanded as they all charged forward.

~~~

"You know these guys haven't been so bad so far," Clark said cheerily as he continued hitting his pickaxe into the mine point. The group had made quite a bit of progress and seeing as there was a place to mine materials figured here would be a good place to take a quick rest.

"Don't get careless," Kotaro said lowly, his sharp eyes continuously watching the surrounding area, his hand ready to grab his Ninja’s knife at any moment. "Confidence is killer in these woods."

"I know that! I'm just saying even those Lynxes don't match up much to your knife skills, Starla’s sword and commands, Zera’s fireballs, and Ryuji’s katanas."

At the mention of the old graying Shogun Kotaro’s gaze shifted. "Mmm, Clark what do you know of the old man?"

"Hmmm?"

"Why does he fear this place?"

"Ryuji’s afraid of this place?" Clark asked, his blue eyes wide with shock

"You can see it in how he holds his katana, very faintly his hand shakes when he goes to unsheathe them, and there are pauses in his moments."

"Jeez," Clark said rubbing his blond hair. "That's some eye you got there Kotaro. But from what I've heard, his old guild died on the third floor of the Yggdrasil back home."

"So why does he come here? Surely we can hire another to take his place and protect Princess Starla," Kotaro said as he cocked his head, his long black ponytail moving as he shifted.

"Ah well, you didn't hear this from me, but after his guild died Ryuji was taken in my Princess Gutrune and he guarded the castle for years, the deal was as long as he didn't have to go back into Yggdrasil he'd do whatever she and the Senatus wanted."

"Then why come back now?" Kotaro asked, crossing his arms as his blue eyes narrowed in on the red armored old man, who was again arguing with Princess Starla.

"Maybe cuz Starla wanted to come out here?"

"That still doesn't make sense. He demanded he come along too when I was assigned as her guard, so why…. I see."

"You see what, Kotaro?"

"The old man doesn't wish to return home…"

"Huh?"

"As long as his death wish does not get Princess Starla harmed I-"

"You two done gossipping?" Zera interrupted, Clark yelping and dropping some of the topazes he had just mined, and Kotaro looking at the smaller woman with bemusement in his eyes. "We're going to be moving soon, we need to get back into position."

"Understood," Kotaro said coolly as he stepped forward.

"Zera you gotta give us a warning next time! Nearly scared the living daylights out of me!"

"That won't do farm boy," Zera said as she floated down to the ground to help Clark gather his dropped materials. "Here we need to be on our toes or else," she looked over at Ryuji, "we'll end up like him."

~~~

The party had moved on, nearly completing the first half of the map, now finding themselves stopped by a guard in front of one of the rainbow-colored doors. It was the only way for them to continue going forward, however-

“I’m afraid we can’t let anyone progress, the monster behind these doors is just far too dangerous.”   
  
“But we were sent here by Princess Persephone herself!” Starla argued back, crossing her arms and huffing just a but.   
  
“Look if you can just get it in writing tha-”   
  
“We have no time for this,” Ryuji said, pushing past the guard on opening the doors.   
  
“Hey, you can’t just do that!”   
  
Inside the room was the same as it was in the rest of the labyrinth. Greens trees, pink flowers, yellow mushrooms, and blue water, accept as Ryuji fully stepped into the room a large red Hippo turned, growling at the man and beginning to move towards him.

‘They aren’t supposed to be on the first floor,’ Ryuji thought in horror as his entire body froze, the Shogun even unable to reach for his katanas as he watched the Raging Tyrant move ever closer to him.

“Ryuji?”

_ “RYUJI RUN!!!!” There had been so much screaming, horror, shock, agony, there screams had echoed off the labyrinth walls, nothing besides screaming except for _

“Ryuji, snap out of it!”   
  
_ The snapping of bones. _

_ ‘How can I hear it so clearly over the screams,’ Ryuji had wondered then, had wondered his entire life as he watched his guildmate’s body snap in half as the Raging Tyrant tore through her body. Its maw was stained in a red darker than the rest of its body. _

_ There were rumors once upon a time that the Raging Tyrant’s skin had been only gray and that enough adventurer’s blood had stained the best red, and that day onward Ryuji couldn’t help believing the rumors were true. _

_ “RYUJI YOU NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE, I’LL BUY YOU AN OPENING, JUST RUN!” His guild leader grabbed his shield, bravely charging forward in a foolish attempt to avenge his fallen comrades. And just like the rest, the Raging Tyrant was able to tear through him, armor and all as if he were nothing but a toy. _

_ And just like that, it was just him and the beast, his comrades torn bodies littering the room, their faces in agony as Ryuji forced his body to run, leaving behind his friends, swearing to never forget that image till the day he died. _

_ Red trees, red flowers, red mushrooms, and red water, this was nothing more than a cemetery the Labyrinth truly was, this was the Waterfall Woods Ryuji knew. And this surely would be where his life would finally end, in the old forest grave he should have lied in with his comrades.  _

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> MAN YOU'D THINK I'D HAVE WRITTEN SOMETHING FOR EO CONSIDERING MY ICON HERE? Well here we go I did it. I actually re-wrote this twice, FINALLY happy with it! TBH I may have gone a bit too much with some of the warning tags but I'd rather be safe than sorry, ya know?
> 
> Honestly, I've wanted to do a long Etrian Odyssey project since forever but I do not have the time right now, I have ideas in mind but alas they must wait so I think just doing short stories is the best thing to do for now, and luckily Nexus lets me have a HUGE guild so I got plenty to work with for now! Hurray!
> 
> Make sure to kudo and/or comment whatcha liked if you can (or if there are any mistakes or critiques always looking to improve!)
> 
> You can find my writing updates at https://twitter.com/MaggyWritesFin
> 
> And my regular screaming at https://twitter.com/MaggyChatter
> 
> And thank you for reading!


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